The present invention relates to an apparatus for mounting tape carrier packages to liquid crystal panels. The tape carrier package ("TCP" hereinafter) is a type of package in which ICs are loaded on a continuous film-like tape carrier.
Recently display devices utilizing liquid crystal are more often used in personal computers, word processors and the like, whereby high efficiency of TCP mounting equipment to mount TCPs to liquid crystal panels is required.
Conventional examples of TCP mounting equipment will be described with reference to FIGS. 3-6.
FIG. 3 illustrates a state where TCPs 18a and TCPs 18b are arranged respectively along the longer sides and the shorter side of a liquid crystal panel 19.
Due to the difference in shape between the TCPs 18a and 18b, two kinds of bonding tools are needed respectively corresponding to the different shapes of the TCPs in the arrangement of FIG. 3. That is, a bonding tool for the TCP 18a along the longer sides and another bonding tool for the TCP 18b along the shorter side are necessary.
More specifically, according to the first conventional example, as shown in FIG. 4, two TCP mounting apparatuses 20 and 21, i.e., TCP mounting apparatus 20 for the longer TCP and TCP mounting apparatus 21 for the shorter TCP are set side by side.
In a second conventional example, as indicated in FIG. 5, either one of mounting heads 22 and 23 for the longer TCP, respectively, and shorter TCP is first installed in a single TCP mounting apparatus. After the longer or shorter TCPs are mounted to not less than a certain number of liquid crystal panels, the mounting head is exchanged to mount the other of the shorter or longer TCPs.
A third example of FIG. 6 also uses a single TCP mounting apparatus, similar to the second example as above. A mounting head 24 for the longer TCP and a mounting head 25 for the shorter TCP are set together in a head section 26 of the TCP mounting apparatus.
Every conventional arrangement has drawbacks.
In the first example, when different kinds of TCPs are to be mounted to a liquid crystal panel, the cost of the equipment approximately doubles, impeding the reduction of any mounting cost.
In the second example, in order to mount TCPs of different kinds, the mounting heads should be exchanged while the equipment is temporarily stopped, thus consuming much time not only for the exchange of the heads, but for regulating the parallelism or the like of the head after the exchange. Moreover, since heating of the bonding tool to a bonding temperature after the exchange of mounting heads takes time, the productivity decreases.
In the third example, if another bonding tool is attached to the head section so as to mount a different kind of TCP there are present in one head section two sets of a suction means, a heating source, a moving means, etc. which are included in each bonding tool. The head section becomes complicated in structure and increases in weight, and is therefore unfit for high-speed mounting. An improvement in productivity is obstructed.